A geography of modern Japan Book

Ernest Satow is now halfway legendary in certain circles. His book on the practise of diplomacy is synonymous with the art of international relations in much the same way that Roget is synonymous with the thesaurae or Webster is synonymous with dictionaries. But this book came much before all that.

Satow came to Japan as the first British diplomat to receive training in Japanese when he was in his late teens, in the mid 1850's. His main credential for this undertaking was that he had studied Chinese in college--which would be like Japan sending a guy to the U.S. because he spoke Greek. In spite of this, he managed to become a first-rate Japanese specialist, and participated in most of the events that shaped early Meiji-era Japan.

The book is a good read for its historical perspective, but also for Satow's bone-dry wit and spirit of adventure. It bogs down toward the end, when Satow becomes the main engine of diplomatic relations between England and Japan, rather than just the fly-on-the-wall translator, but this is a small price to pay for the first three hundred pages, which are about as fine a presentation of Japan at its opening as you are likely to find anywhere.